condolences

Eunice Walker Johnson, widow of publishing magnate and entrepreneur John H. Johnson passed away today. Ebony and Jet magazine could be found in nearly every African-American home in the country, and the Ebony Fashion Fair was THE society event for decades.

Her enormous influence was equally matched by her generosity. Mrs. Johnson donated millions of dollars to various charitable organizations throughout the years and she inspired generations of authors, fashionistas, business owners, and educators.

My thoughts and prayers are with her family today.

new year; new direction

As you all may have noticed, I have not been updating my blog as regularly as I have been. A lot of this has to do with some life events. Some of it has to do with frustration. When I first started this blog, I just thought of it as an outlet to vent my feelings about the 2008 election. I then started to write about my interests: tennis, movies, and music. The thing was, there a million plus political blogs, and another million tennis, movie, and music blogs. What could I possibly say that was any different?

Soon I began to become dispirited with blogging. What was the purpose? What exactly was I trying to say? Was I writing for myself or for attention? These are questions that I have yet to answer. I haven’t decided to stop blogging, but I need to find my voice. 2010 is the time for me to really find my passion and to commit to it. I invite you to stay along as I embark on this journey. I want this to be fun instead of agonizing.

Wish me luck and stay tuned…

cooning guido style

The Italian Community in New Jersey is up in arms because MTV has a brand new show called, “Jersey Show” which showcases a cultural subset who call themselves ”Guidos”. Guidos are dark-skinned (due to excessive tanning),  have wild hair, have their own vernacular, and spend their time partying, drinking, gelling their hair, and wasting time. Something about this sounds familiar but I can’t put my finger on it just yet… But Italians from the Eastern seaboard and beyond are decrying the show for exploiting ethnic Italian stereotypes. They call the show racist. Again, this sounds so friggin’ familiar. Hmmmm. Due to pressure, two advertisers have pulled out. Undaunted MTV decided to run the show anyway.

That isn’t surprising in the least. Who cares about stereotypes when you’re making tons of money? You know that familiar feeling I kept mentioning? It’s the sense of deja vu. MTV and its demonic sister, Vh-1 have been a showcase for black folks to make fools out of themselves. Now I guess it’s time for them to dig up some more old stereotypes in order to offend a whole new audience. It’s not like I’m placing the blame entirely on the networks, they wouldn’t be able to have these shows if there weren’t idiots out there willing to sell themselves out for a little bit of fame and a $5,000.00 honoriarium.

The Guidos in question say that they are just expressing family and ethnic pride. I could go with that to a certain extent. Say like, if there were was some redeeming knowledge in learning how to gel your hair perfectly and say, “Yo”! Let’s just call all this for what it is: Cooning. Cooning always pays. It’s that simple. Even if there was enough outrage to get “Jersey Shore” taken off, what’s to say that the very next week  MTV wouldn’t come up with, “Chinatown Nights” or some other bullshit?

It’s so easy to sell out now it’s not even funny, nor is it entertaining. Flip any channel and you’ll be confront with the very worst parts of our individual cultures. As long as there are people willing to buck and shine (in Jersey Shore’s case: Oil and Gel), there’s always going to be someone who’s willing to film it. Of course there’s always those willing to watch.

campeóns de la segunda parte

Spain wins back to back Davis Cup Championships this weekend. They are the first team to do this since Sweden did in 1998. With this win, Spain gets to hoist the big silver bowl for the 4th time this decade. Can we say, “the team to beat”?This year Rafael Nadal was part of the finals squad and won both of his rubbers convincingly. However, the biggest pat on the back goes to David Ferrer who came back from a 2 sets to love deficit to defeat Radek Stepanek in the second match. Questions were raised when first year captain Albert Costa chose Ferrer for singles duty instead of Fernando Verdasco, but somebody knew something we didn’t know: get a Spanish player on clay in front of a home crowd of 16,000 and stuff happens.

With the aforementioned Verdasco teaming up with Feliciano Lopez, they went on to defeat Stepanek and Tomas Berdych in doubles on Saturday. The Czechs fate was sealed and Spanish got to hop around the court in a victory dance.

Congratulations to Rafa and the rest of the Spanish team. It’s great to see the season end on such a high note.

Player of the Year-WTA

Her career has been made of equal parts overwhelming success and controversy. She is either loved or hated, but in 2009, Serena did the damn thing. She won the Australian Open, Wimbledon, and the WTA Year End Championships. She earned more money than any other woman on tour this year. She was also fined more than anyone on either the WTA and ATP as well. She’s a mixed bag of genius and “teh crazy”, and she’s the Number 1 tennis player in the world.

Next year the tennis establishment and the haters will be welcoming back a couple of Belgans. The Powers That Be will be keeping a close eye on her because she’s on probation now-like she boosted some bras from Victoria’s Secret or something. Never mind all that. Serena puts butts in the seats. Serena brings ratings. Serena loves to win. This past year, she has done more to lift the profile of women’s tennis than anyone else. No one can deny that.

While others faded and faltered, Serena kept her focus on winning the big ones.  She the victim of bullshit calls and politics. She was the best and that’s all there is to it.

Condolences

To the family of little Shaniya Davis. God rest her soul and help us all.

righteous and real anger

We had been warned beforehand.  Representative Michelle Bachmann of Minnesota had hit the button on the siren and called the Tea Party Folks to descend upon Capitol Hill to confront her fellow Congressmen and women. They were to declare that they didn’t want their health care taken away. They didn’t want Nancy Pelosi and Co. to spend all of their hard earned taxes. They didn’t want any part of Socialism! Come they did, about 4,000 in number. Some were arrested but most were content to work themselves in a lather on the steps of the Capitol building, spurned on by Bachmann, Boehner, Cantor, Foxx, and a few other fools responsible for the spread of the blatant misinformation about health care reform.

They came with offensive signs, they screamed, and they yelled. They had John Voight drive another spike into their fear filled hearts (Angie, come get your Daddy, please). They were led in a bungled recitation of the Pledge of Allegiance. They were given a mucked up civics lesson by John Boehner. One of these days he’ll actually read something, maybe like the Constitution, or the Republican health care bill. They rallied as if they were part of some kind of new revolution. A Republican red, 99% white, and blue collar revolution.

Well, wave a flag and shed a tear folks. As for me, I’m completely nonplussed at the situational patriotism that was displayed. Had it been the other side protesting, they would have been called traitors or even worse. Only middle American, Obama hating, native-born people can love this country. Yeah, I get it. Now get on your buses paid for by Insurance lobbyist funded Astroturf organizations and go on home. We’ve been through this righteous anger all summer. The shit is tired.

We were warned but we weren’t ready for a horrific display of real anger that was shown today. It didn’t happen in the rotunda in Washington, but on an army base in Texas. Shortly after 1:00, an Army major and two or possibly three accomplices shot and killed 12 people and wounded 30 more. While the bobbleheads on The Right were dealing in manufactured fear on the Hill, the residents of Ft. Hood were facing the real thing. Fellow soldiers who stood alongside them and took the oath to protect the country from enemies, turned their guns on them and cut them down ruthlessly. Details are sketchy right now. A name and picture was released and stories are floating out that one of the men was to be deployed to Iraq at the end of this month. Surely within in the next few days a clearer picture will be drawn of the men and the circumstances that caused so much terror and death. But like I said, we were warned. Our military men and women have been stretched to the breaking point with the weight of two wars and a lack of mental health services available. Soldiers who have seen the worst acts of human nature imaginable abroad are being sent on tour after tour with no time to decompress or heal. Suicide rates were skyrocketing. The divorce rate of military service people have shot through the roof. The break was coming. We were warned.

So let’s all direct our prayers to the victims and their friends and family at Ft. Hood. Let’s give our sympathy and attention to those who have made the ultimate sacrifice; not to those with an entitled sense of anger and only want to further spread hate.

polls and purges

It’s been awhile but I had to deal with some things in the real world.  They haven’t been completely dealt with but, here I am. Writing supposedly heals the soul. I’m about to do some healing right now. 

Well last night was election night.  A year and almost a day before, one of the most historic elections in our country’s history took place. Barack Obama was elected as the 44th President and the world rejoiced. This year after tirelessly campaigning against Obama, the opposition sought to wrest seats and the conscience of the electorate from him. After the results came in late last night, The Right were celebrating gubernatorial victories in Virginia and New Jersey. They were well within their rights to. Chris Christie and Bob McDonnell ran smart campaigns that focused on the issues of their respective states. Moderates and Independents flocked to the polls while the Democrats stayed away. The massive Obama ground game was non-existent and even an appearance by the man himself didn’t help. So, these wins were a referendum on Obama and the Democratic controlled Senate right?

Not so fast. State elections in an off-presidential year have had little effect historically. Meaning, gains in one election cycle don’t necessarily mean the same gains in the next one. Also, let’s be real. John Corzine and Craig Deeds weren’t the best candidates. Corzine’s popularity numbers were in the low 30’s. Deeds-Crikey! This dolt actually thought he could win being an anti-Obama Democrat. He was trounced and rightly so. That just goes to show that a campaign is only as good as the campaigner. You can’t make a rose out of a weed. These guys did not appeal to young voters, minorities, and left leaning Independents-the core coalitions of the Democratic Party. They did very little to inspire the base so no wonder why the stayed away in droves. If anything, Obama upped the bar significantly for modern politics. You have to be an outstanding candidate with command of the issues, you have to rally the base, you have to appeal to those outside your party, and you must have a top notch campaign staff. Neither Democratic had any of these things and as a result, the Republicans won.

But those races weren’t the most significant ones of the night. The race that everyone’s attention was focused on was a special election Congressional race in the 23rd District in New York State. Republican DeeDee Scozzafava was hand-picked by the GOP bigwigs in the district to run for the seat. Initially, they saw no problems. NY-23 was solidly Republican and Scozzafava was a fiscally conservative/socially moderate candidate who fight right in with the East Coast Republican establishment. That is until The Right of the right set their sights on the seat. Soon, the nationwide Republican Purge hit and Scozzafava was labeled a liberal and a radical and was displaced in favor of a handpicked Conservative by the name of Doug Hoffman. Armed with a cache of out of district money, the blessings of Dick Amrey, Sarah Palin, Rush Limbaugh, and Tea Party talking points, Hoffman positioned himself as the main contender to battle Democrat Bill Owens. Scozzafava saw the writing on the wall and bowed out of the race.

Funny how things just seem to right themselves (don’t pardon the pun, it was bad). Hoffman seemed to have everything in hand. He was the right wing’s blessed child running in a solid red district. Forget the fact that he didn’t actually LIVE in the district. Forget the fact that he was completely disinterested in local issues. Forget the fact that he pissed off the local press by skirting questions and bringing everyone’s favorite Astro-turfer Dick Armrey to a sit down interview. Forget the fact that Scozzafava had one more card up her sleeve. Two days before the election, she endorsed OWENS. She even made a round of robo calls stating that Owens would be the best choice. Hell hath no fury and all that. Fox News, Michael Steele, and the others who had endorsed Hoffman over her were left with egg all on their mugs. Credit to them for recovering quickly and predicting a Hoffman victory. Too bad they underestimated the voters of NY-23 like they underestimated Scozzafava.

They just never seem to get things right, those folks. By Wednesday morning,  Bill Owens was declared the winner of a house seat that hadn’t had a Democratic butt sit in it in about a century. The folks of NY-23 weren’t fooled by the fly by night Conservative. They weren’t swayed by Sarah Palin’s Facebook encouragement. They weren’t turned on by Rush’s invective. Good for them. Good for the rest of us. The purge didn’t work this time, and if they keep making the same mistakes, it will never work. This was the race that was supposed to be the real test of the resurgent Republican Party. It was supposed to be a statement against President Obama.

See how well that turned out….

Letting go..

Climbing up the those stone steps

with her behind me.

Listening to that familiar litany of how I’m not this

and I need to do that and

I’m just not good enough,

Mother wit is toxic waste.

Acid insults are shooting out and

burning painfully against my back.

Making the child in me feel like nothing

again.

Those slippery stone steps

covered with the last remnants of ice.

Impeding the progression to the hell

lying in wait inside.

She’s behind me and she’s feeble.

Her balance isn’t what it used to be.

I hear her struggling but I don’t turn around.

She’s losing her grip as she’s calling my name.

I turn to see her fingers slipping from the rail.

Everything’s has slowed down now.

I grab her hand before her fall.

She looks up at me; in gratitude I hope.

But a scowl meets my face instead.

“Help me” she shouts and she starts to curse me.

Degradations of the past start to

run through my mind.

My grip is not so sure now.

Ruined birthdays and miserable holidays.

All decorated with guilt, depression, and anger.

Screaming breakfasts and silent dinners.

My head is pounding now.

I take another look into that face.

Searching for something to love.

Hoping that’s there’s at least one thing

worth saving at least.

She’s teetering with my fingers

acting as a bridge between life and death.

Why am I wasting time?

My mind should be made up by now.

Besides, it’s really cold

and Mother is so old…

So I Let Go.

Shanghai-ed

Another big tournament in the endless ATP season is over and Nikolay Davydenko is the champion. He defeated Rafael Nadal in straight sets, but that was only a small part of the story of this week’s tourney. Unfortunately, the nine retirements were. Nadal breezed into the final because 2 of his opponents retired during their matches. Unusual? coincidental? I don’t think so. Until the ATP gets serious about placing the health and well being of its players first, this is going to happen more and more often.

But back to the match for a sec. Give it up to Agassi-Lite, he played well all week by permanently setting up real estate on the baseline and by playing consistent, error free tennis. It works. It works well. Rafa to his credit, managed to keep the first set close, but once again couldn’t capitalize on the break point opportunities given to him. I’m positive that will all come in time. This was his second tournament back from yet another injury and a final appearance is pretty good. At least that’s what he said. I’ll take his word for it instead of the Doomy McGloomers infecting the media and internet. ”Rafa’s Slumping” and ”Nadal’s lost his moxie” are sure to appear in the headlines next week, but I’m going to ignore all of that. He’s still #2 in the world. He’s the Aussie Open champion, and he’s an all around awesome person. Whatever he needs to work on, he will. That’s all we can ask and that’s all we should expect.

Besides, it could have been a lot worse. He could have been sitting at home watching the tourney like Wawarinka, Monfils, Roddick, Haas, Ljubicic, Lopez, Del Potro, and Zverev. Knock on wood.